Project 1 -
Dan Shredder In Hellzone
Role: Designer / Producer
Software: Unreal Engine 4
Team Size: 11
Development Cycle: 8 months
Dan Shredder In Hellzone is a rhythm based rail shooter where the player utilizes both a Dance Dance Revolution pad and a Guitar Hero controller to blast their way through the forces of hell using the power of rock and roll.
During my time on this project I primarily focused on designing the boss level. The final boss was Satan, and my idea was to have it feel like a duel between him and Dan where they take turns one-upping each other with one of their bass or guitar solos respectively. A mechanic called the grudge bar was created to help showcase the duel aspect. Each time the player successfully hit a note, the bar increased, but every time you missed a note or hit an obstacle, it would go down. By the end of the fight the bar needed to be at least 50% full in order to win. I set out to create an encounter that would utilize the grudge mechanic and create gameplay that supported this duel theory.
The boss fight was made up of two types of sections: sections where you played Solo's using the guitar and sections that required you to dodge obstacles using the DDR pad with the occasional enemy encounters. Unfortunately the enemy encounters interrupted the game flow, so I decided to cut them. While this meant the grudge bar mechanic didn't have a place in the game, it allowed Dan and Satan's solos to sync up perfectly. This made the gameplay feel much more like a back and forth between the two rock stars which supported the solo-off theme much better.
During the development cycle I also contributed on the management side of things. As this was the first time I've ever worked on a team this large, I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page. I spent a lot of time working with all the disciplines, making sure there was constant communication between everyone. This helped avoid tension from developing between teammates, and prevented the team from wasting time by asking other disciplines repetitive questions. People have different learning styles, so I worked with individuals to accommodate what kind of styles would better help them accomplish their tasks. This led to the creation of an additional system aside from pineapple to track what needed to get done.
I created various pages that listed all tasks that needed to get done, each one designated to tasks for each discipline. Each page tracked multiple things, such as the task name, who it's assigned to, it's status in development, and a flexible due date. All these different fields helped keep individuals on track during development, and served as an alternative / additional means of helping complete their assignments.
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